Vietnam attaches importance to promoting cultural diversity

20:16 | 02/12/2017

Vietnam has implemented a wide range of policies to preserve and promote cultural diversity among ethnic groups, considering it an extremely important factor to ensure peace, stability and sustainable development, a Vietnamese diplomat has said.

Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga

Speaking at the High-Level Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Human Rights and Cultural Diversity at the UN headquarters in New York on December 1 (Vietnam time), Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, head of Vietnam’s permanent mission to the UN, welcomed and supported the adoption of the Political Declaration and Action Programme of the NAM on human rights and cultural persity.

She stressed the need to continue treasuring the NAM’s fundamental values of solidarity, tolerance, dialogue and cooperation.

She affirmed that Vietnam backs constructive dialogue and cooperation on the basis of mutual respect and no interference in internal affairs of sovereign countries.

It is necessary to have a balanced and comprehensive approach to fostering and ensuring human rights, she said, adding that economic, cultural and social rights should be respected as political and civil rights, with regards to development level, history and specific features of each nation.

In his opening remark at the meeting, themed “Solidarity, Dialogue and Tolerance in A Diverse World: Towards a Culture of Peace”, Miroslav Lajcak, President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, asserted that solidarity, dialogue and tolerance are all hallmarks of multilaterialism and the NAM is a major contributor to this trend.

Emphasising the importance of a culture of peace, he said that a culture of peace is not possible without respect for human rights and dialogue holds the key to almost all of multilateral objectives as it can foster tolerance and solidarity among persity, prevent conflicts and build a culture of sustaining peace, he said.

The meeting adopted the Political Declaration and Action Programme of the NAM on human rights and cultural persity, which affirm that respect for cultural persity and cultural rights contributes to consolidating peace and friendship among nations.

NAM countries also vowed to foster a culture of peace in line with the UN Charter towards the realisation of human rights while encouraging the promotion of cultural persity via dialogue and cooperation.

Vietnam and China held the ninth round of negotiations of a working group on the sea area beyond the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin and the sixth round of negotiations of a working group on cooperation in sea development in the central city Da Nang, on March 15-16.